It's Not What It Seems
by akaiihana
Summary: A story with an extremely unexpected pairing.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I wish I owned it, but sadly, it is owned by the great Higuchi Tachibana, creator of Gakuen Alice.

**A/N: **This is my second Gakuen Alice fic so far. Hope you enjoy it! I'll give you a hint about how it's going to turn out. _I like unreasonable pairings._ Get the picture? On with the story!

**It's Not what It Seems, Chapter One  
by locked-away rainbow**

_This is 4 years **after **Mikan's batch has graduated._

A blond-haired young man looked around the railroad station for his best friend, who he hadn't seen in five years. They were finally going to see each other again after all this time, but what was taking him so long?

"Natsume…where are you?" Ruka thought to himself worriedly.

Suddenly, he felt a slap on his back, and turned around.

"Looking for me?" the raven-haired offender smirked.

"Hey, Natsume!" Ruka grinned at his oldest, and best, friend. "It's good to see you again." _Which was the understatement of the year_, Ruka thought wryly.

"We haven't seen each other in all this time, and that's all you can say?"

Ruka laughed. Natsume hadn't changed at all. A few minutes into their reunion, and Natsume was already being sarcastic. He reached out and gave Natsume a hug.

"That's more like it."

Ruka stiffened slightly. _Could he…?_ But he dismissed the thought immediately, and they hugged tightly. (A/N: Sorry, I know it was OOC.)

"It really is great to see you, Ruka." Natsume said quietly.

"Same goes for me." Ruka smiled. "Let's go, you must be really exhausted from that train ride."

"No, I'm not tired. Just a bit hungry," Natsume admitted. "The food they served us was," Natsume made a face. "Luckily for them that they didn't know that I could have made that train explode in a matter of seconds – "

"Natsume, not here! You know how much trouble you'll get into!" Ruka interrupted in alarm.

Natsume eyed Ruka thoughtfully. "You haven't changed at all since graduation, haven't you?"

"Neither have you," Ruka replied. "Come on, let's go, I'll treat you. And no buts," Ruka said, seeing Natsume frown and open his mouth in protest, "It's okay with me."

"All right, fine. Let's go, Ruka."

They walked to Ruka's car, which was parked nearby, each of them carrying some of Natsume's luggage. Ruka loaded his share of luggage into the car, but Natsume regarded the car thoughtfully. It was a red Porsche.

"Nice car, Ruka. Is it yours?" Natsume asked.

"Yeah. Life's pretty good for me nowadays."

Natsume grunted in reply, and they both got into the car.

"So how have you been? _Where_ have you been?" Ruka asked. They had been out of touch, and it was only recently that they had been able to contact one another again.

"Been with Gakuen Alice. Not that I wanted to, of course."

"Ruka watched Natsume intently out of the corner of his eye. Natsume's expression still hadn't changed from when they were kids, it was still a mixture of anger, bitterness and sadness.

"Are you…still working for them?"

"Yeah. it's not I like I have any choice. You know that better that anyone." Though both of them had already graduated from Gakuen Alice, Natsume had to continue working for them. His Alice was too important for them to just let Natsume leave after school.

"So what suddenly made you come here?" I thought they would value you too much to let you out of their sight."

Natsume stiffened. Luckily, Ruka didn't notice because he had just driven into an extremely busy intersection.

"They – decided to…give me some time off."

"Really?"

Ruka's voice was skeptical, which irritated Natsume. Ruka knew, much better than what other people did, the things that the school could make Natsume do. But he forced himself to control his annoyance, because he knew that Ruka's skepticism could easily turn to suspicion, and that was the last thing he needed.

"It was about time they let me off anyway." Natsume said with a forced smile.

Ruka agreed heartily. "So what're you planning to do now?"

"I dunno. Probably relax."

"Where are you staying?"

"Dunno."

"Okay, you'll stay with me. Don't worry, it's no problem, and there's plenty of room," Ruka said, as Natsume scowled. "You are my best friend, you know that."

"All right already, I get it. Do what you like." Natsume grunted.

Ruka drove to his apartment. It was rather small, but very comfortable. He pulled into the driveway and he and Natsume got out. Ruka started unloading Natsume's luggage, but Natsume stepped back from the driveway and viewed the outside of Ruka's apartment.

"Ruka, is this yours or are you renting it?"

Ruka stuck his head out from the door and grinned. "It's mine. Do you like it?"

"It's not bad."

"If you think the outside's nice, think of what it looks like inside! Come on and give me a hand with this, won't you?" Ruka's voice was muffled since he was already indoors.

Natsume walked to the door. But for some reason, he didn't want to go inside. Not yet, anyway.

"Natsume, hurry up!" he heard Ruka's voice faintly.

Natsume opened the door and stepped into the apartment. He surveyed it, thinking that Ruka was probably earning a lot nowadays.

"Hey Ruka, can you come down here a minute?" he yelled.

"Coming!" Ruka yelled back. Suddenly Natsume heard a loud bang, followed by several crashes, one after the other, coming from another part of the apartment. He ran towards the noise and saw that it was coming from the stairs. He saw Ruka at the bottom of it, out cold. Apparently while bringing Natsume's things to the upper floor, he had fallen down. Natsume's stuff were lying all around Ruka, and one had even opened from the impact, revealing certain white articles of clothing that are usually worn on places where the sun does not shine. (A/N: Got this from Helene haha…)

Natsume moved all of his bags to one side of the room, feeling guilty. It was partially his fault why Ruka fell down the stairs, because he hadn't helped Ruka out. He gently prodded Ruka.

"Ruka, wake up."

Ruka didn't even so much as move a finger. Natsume sighed in exasperation, and bent down and lifted Ruka onto his shoulder. He put him on the sofa in the living room, the room he had first entered. He began shaking Ruka.

"Ruka, wake up already!"

Finally, he did. There was a huge lump on the back of his head. He hung his head in shame.

"I'm sorry, Natsume. I tripped on the last stair."

"You conked out for about ten minutes. Where's the kitchen?"

Ruka was confused. "Past that door," he pointed to the door across the sofa, "but why?"

"Don't be stupid." Natsume grunted, and disappeared into the kitchen. Ruka groaned and felt the back of his head. It was painful, and he could practically feel the migraine coming. He grabbed the pillow behind his head to see if there was any blood. There wasn't any. He sighed and dropped back down on the pillow…which was unfortunately no longer behind his head but in his hands, and a dull thud resounded from the sofa's wooden armrest.

Natsume, who had been getting ice for Ruka's head, suddenly heard a loud "ow!" coming from the living room. He went back, and found Ruka sitting up on the sofa holding onto the back of his head.

"What happened to you, huh?" he asked Ruka.

"Banged my head on the armrest." Ruka answered, wincing at the pain.

"You know, Ruka, there was a reason why I put a pillow behind your head," Natsume said exasperatedly, and handed Ruka the ice which he had wrapped a piece of cloth.

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**A/N: **How was it? I hope you liked it! Might take me a little while before posting the next chapter though. Thanks for reading!

**locked-away rainbow**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Yay, I finally got around to updating this fanfic! Right now I'm more focused on my other two Gakuen Alice fanfics, Life's Tangles and It Just Wasn't Meant To Be. And by the way, I changed my screen name. And also, this is the only time I could get around to writing again. My inspiration just returned now, in the form of…

**Disclaimer:** I wish I owned it, but sadly, it is owned by the great Higuchi Tachibana, creator of Gakuen Alice.

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**It's Not What It Seems, Chapter Two**

"I forgot." Ruka said ruefully after hitting his head twice in the same spot.

Natsume sighed. "How could you forget something like that?"

"I'm sorry."

Ruka hung his head, making Natsume feel slightly guilty. The guy had already been hurt, and now he was insulting him? The thought only made it worse.

"Don't be sorry. It wasn't your fault." Natsume said gruffly. "It was mine. I shouldn't have just left you to bring all my bags. But you knew you shouldn't have done that, right?" he frowned. "You know how I feel about people doing things like that for me."

"But I'm your best friend, right? You know that I don't mind."

"Never mind it."

Ruka felt bad about offending Natsume. He always seemed to be doing it, even though he had the best of intentions.

"I'm sorry."

"I told you to stop apologizing, right?"

"Yeah." Ruka exhaled slowly.

Finally, Ruka got himself in a comfortable position on the couch. Holding the ice pack gingerly to the growing lump on the back of his head, he turned to face Natsume again, who was now sitting in the chair beside him.

"So, how's it been? I know I've asked you, but seriously, how are you doing?" Ruka said a bit awkwardly to Natsume.

"Oh, it's been the same, as always." Natsume replied emotionlessy, staring at the wall.

"I see." Ruka said, not knowing what else to say. What was he supposed to say anyway?

"So, um, do you need anything? I don't mind if you want to go unpack now." He said to cover up the silence.

"All right." Natsume stood up without another word and went back upstairs, picking up his bags and gathering his scattered clothing on the way.

Ruka made sure he was out of earshot, and sighed. Already he was feeling weird, and Natsume's visit had just begun. He felt really bad, but he had no idea why. He wished he hadn't been so stupid as to take all the bags upstairs at the same time.

He sighed again and lay back down cautiously on the pillow. His head was starting to hurt, and he felt like it was about to be a migraine. But he forced himself to get back to his sitting position and to carefully stand up. He headed upstairs to Natsume's bedroom.

"Natsume? Are you okay?" He asked as he stood in the doorway.

"Yeah, thanks. I've just finished." Natsume straightened up from the kneeling position he was in.

"You have? Wow, that was really quick."

Ruka had reason to be surprised too. Only a few minutes, and he had already finished? Besides that, the room was immaculate and had an air of being that way for a long time already, although Natsume had only fixed it up now.

"Are you hungry?" Ruka asked his best friend solicitously.

"A bit." Natsume said, although his stomach was growling.

Ruka smiled a little.

"What are you smirking at?" Natsume said.

"I wasn't smirking," Ruka said, surprised, "just…um…"

"What is it, Ruka?"

"Just…happy to have you back." Ruka said, smiling again, this time sincerely.

"Oh. Well, it is good to see you again." Natsume said uncertainly.

"Do you want to go out for a while? Or would you rather stay here?" Ruka asked him.

"I think I'd rather stay here. I'm a bit tired."

"All right. I'll just cook something for lunch. There's a TV outside, you can watch it if you want." Ruka went back downstairs and proceeded to the kitchen to prepare their meal.

Natsume, however, was in no mood for TV. He went back downstairs and walked out. He just stood there, admiring the view. Ruka had chosen a nice place to live in, and it had a wonderful view that was relaxing.

_What I wouldn't give to live in a place like this, _Natsume thought. _To just be a normal person. _

Suddenly, he heard some strange noises coming from behind the house. He walked to the back and saw another building. By now the noises were becoming more distinguishable.

He opened the door and was greeted by the sight of many animals. Some of them were in cages, and the others in stalls, and still others simply walking around as though they owned the place. The din was terrible.

He was startled to suddenly see Ruka already standing beside him.

"I heard the noise. I figured you were here." Ruka remarked. He bent down and stroked a black cat that had somehow gotten between all the other animals to welcome Ruka.

"So you really did come around to becoming a vet, didn't you?" Natsume said. For some reason he felt an ood pain in his chest when he said that.

"Yup. I love it. This is Noir, by the way. I adopted her from one of my clients who didn't want to keep her anymore. Said she was too much of a handful." Noir affectionately nipped at Ruka. He bent down again to pick her up.

"Noir?" Natsume asked.

"Yeah, means black in French."

"I see." Natsume reached out and touched the smooth black fur tentatively. The cat relaxed, and Natsume stroked her more freely.

"Wow, I'm surprised she let you touch her. Usually she throws a fit. Maybe she likes you." Ruka said, relieved.

"I used to be a black cat too."

"Oh yeah. Maybe that's why she likes you."

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed it, even if it was short! Thanks to **glenda23, zephyrlight (I really like your name ), diana.o5, aya-chan028, BlueMiyako, Nobairu-chan, anamicah, **and **Alice Academy. **Till next time!

akaiihana


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